The Humanitarium

Abstract

We have a dream of creating a museum focused on humanitarian work through curating the stories of inspiring individuals. Our mission is to inspire families and individuals through a meaningful entertainment experience, educate them about local humanitarian efforts, and engage them in local service opportunities. Currently, we are partnered with The Bennion Center, creating a pop-up exhibit about the life and legacy of the Center's namesake, Lowell Bennion. This exhibit will launch our idea to the community and allow us to see if there is a community desire for this type of museum. We will be showcasing this exhibit, as well as doing other pop-up exhibits, until we can gain enough funding to get into our own building, where we then can more fully launch our idea into a full-fledged museum. Pivotal to the museum will be an on-site service center. Guests will be inspired by the stories of amazing individuals and organizations and then get to serve locally, right on the spot.

Additional Questions

Who is your customer?

Our customer lives within the Salt Lake Valley, and our museum will cater mostly to adults 18+. We will also have some child friendly exhibits, but we really want this to be a space that adds another entertainment opportunity for a night out with friends, date night, social gathering, etc.

What problem does this idea/product solve or what market need does it serve?

According to the Corporation for National & Community Service, Utah is the #1 ranked state in volunteering in the United States, with Salt Lake City being the #2 city for volunteerism in the United States. Because of this, Salt Lake City is a great platform to tell the stories of inspiring humanitarians to the world. The Humanitarium would greatly enhance the cultural environment of Salt Lake City and would help to give our city another way to stand out. We feel that these stats alone show a strong demand for a museum focused on humanitarian work, and that Salt Lake City is the perfect niche market for our idea. Amidst a time in the world of a lot of trouble and tragedy, we want to give the world something to make them feel good and do good.

What attributes will make this idea/product successful? Why do you believe that those features will create success?

We really want our on-site service center to be the hallmark of our museum. The idea for this museum rises also out of the problem many face of not feeling like they have time to volunteer, or being intimidated by volunteer websites that look like job searches. Our on-site service center will be a way that visitors can immediately get engaged in a meaningful service opportunity without a lot of effort exerted on their part. Our service center will partner with local organizations looking for new ways to recruit volunteers, where the organization can take over the space with their own service projects. Through this center, we will be able to connect organizations with future long term volunteers by providing a face to face introduction. Visitors will have come directly from experiencing the stories of inspiring individuals, and we feel like our service center will be the perfect way for them to get back out in the world and get engaged in service. We also want our museum to be a community engagement center, with places on the main floor to gather, mingle, study, eat in our cafe space, and get involved in the community.

Explain how you (your team) will execute to make this idea/product successful? What gives you (your team) an advantage over others already in the market or new to this market?

We plan to execute our idea by starting with pop-up exhibits to generate demand and excitement for our idea. These pop-ups will also act as one of our main fundraising tools. As already explained, we are currently partnered with The Bennion Center to do our first pop-up exhibit about the life and legacy of Lowell Bennion, who is known as one of Utah's forefathers of humanitarianism. We are currently working on this exhibit, and will be showcasing it in multiple venues throughout the next year, kicking off our tour at the Legacy of Lowell Day of Service on September 22nd, hosted by The Bennion Center. We also hope to drive traffic to our website through talking with individuals at our pop-up exhibits, and to use our website as a community forum to generate ideas of what the community wants to see in this museum. Community involvement will be key for demand generation. Along with doing pop-up exhibits focused on the good that is happening in the community, we are also actively meeting with volunteer organizations and other museums to garner a network of support for our future museum. We currently have support from organizations such as Youthlinc, The Bennion Center, and the Treehouse Museum, to name a few.

Team Leader

Brandon Davis

University of Utah

My wife and I have a goal to open a museum focused on inspiring humanitarians. Our mission is to inspire families and individuals with a meaningful entertainment experience, educate them about local humanitarian efforts, and engage them in meaningful local service opportunities. Right now, I am in my Senior year in the Marketing major at the David Eccles School of Business. My wife and I have been married 2 years, and have a little 1 year old daughter.